Speaker 1: This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Chris Harrison coming to you from the home office in Austin, Texas.
Speaker 1: One of the things I love about Austin, and one
Speaker 1: of the things I just love about the fact that
Speaker 1: I've travel around the world is food.
Speaker 2: Food and wine.
Speaker 1: If you know me at all, you know I love both,
Speaker 1: especially my good wines. But I love talking food, I
Speaker 1: love talking wine. The people that I really look up
Speaker 1: to and admire and follow on Instagram, on TV, you
Speaker 1: name it, are chefs. I am obsessed with chefs, the
Speaker 1: fact that they can do what they do at such
Speaker 1: a masterclass level, and those chefs that have really separated
Speaker 1: themselves gone to that next level on media, whether it's TV, magazines, podcasts,
Speaker 1: you name it. But also they have maintained that relevance
Speaker 1: in the real culinary world, meaning their restaurant are absolutely banging.
Speaker 1: The guy that checks every box you can name in
Speaker 1: being a chef and in dominating this world is Tyler Florence.
Speaker 1: I don't know Tyler that well, obviously, he hosts a
Speaker 1: podcast with a very good friend of mine, Wells Adams,
Speaker 1: and I'm jealous that these guys have the podcast two
Speaker 1: dudes in a kitchen, and so I am going to
Speaker 1: borrow Wells Adams co host Tyler Florence, and he's going
Speaker 1: to join me on the most dramatic podcast ever. We're
Speaker 1: diving into it right now. Joining me now is the
Speaker 1: one the only chef, Tyler Florence. Dude, it's good to
Speaker 1: see you. Thanks for joining me.
Speaker 2: My pleasure. Good to see you too, man. How are you.
Speaker 2: I'm doing great?
Speaker 1: Thanks for asking.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I know it's early out west, and I appreciate you
Speaker 1: getting up and doing this. I'm obviously here in Austin
Speaker 1: Central time, but I see you know, Tyler Florence up
Speaker 1: sipping his coffee as I kept I'm interested in. People
Speaker 1: probably want to know right away what's a chef?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: Do you make your own coffee? You're grinding your own beans?
Speaker 2: How's that work?
Speaker 1: As you're sipping on your morning Joe?
Speaker 2: Oh, well, I you know, like it or not. It's
Speaker 2: one of the horrible things about getting old, Like at
Speaker 2: five thirty in the morning. Yeah, I think you and
Speaker 2: I have the same age. How about fifty two? Yep?
Speaker 2: Same age? Nineteen seventy one yep, yep. So I don't
Speaker 2: know about you, but like five thirty in the morning,
Speaker 2: if I want to or not, my ice crack open. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So I'm up. I'm an early riser. And that being said,
Speaker 2: I also kind of go to bed late just because
Speaker 2: I get home with the restaurants at like ten eleven o'clock.
Speaker 2: So my average day is like fifteen hours, eighteen hours.
Speaker 2: Like it's a grinder, right. So the first part of
Speaker 2: the thing, I gotta have some great coffee, you know.
Speaker 2: I'm just I'm a huge fan nerd on coffee. And
Speaker 2: there's a great roaster called Equator here in Marin County, California,
Speaker 2: just across the bridge from San Francisco, and I just
Speaker 2: think it's the absolute best. And so I've got a
Speaker 2: I've got a Brebel Oracle one Touch, like the really
Speaker 2: expensive one, and I've got it in truffle black.
Speaker 1: Truffle black. That's a color.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a color, truffle black. Right. So I walk
Speaker 2: in the morning in this like Darth Vader of an
Speaker 2: espresso machine is there to greet me, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: let's roll, let's do it right.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna admit two things right away. I love food,
Speaker 1: love wine. I love to cook. But two things I
Speaker 1: cannot stand in this world.
Speaker 2: Coffee.
Speaker 1: I just the taste, I love the smell. I've tried
Speaker 1: to drink it, I you know, for many years, obviously
Speaker 1: when I was hosting the Bachelor bacherette and I kept
Speaker 1: ungodly hours like you up all night. I'm sure Wells
Speaker 1: has talked to you about that. I would try to
Speaker 1: drink coffee. I can't do it, man, I just can't
Speaker 1: stand it.
Speaker 2: And listen, I can totally understand where that comes from,
Speaker 2: because it's a very like bitter taste, but like once
Speaker 2: you get into the nuance, it's like bad coffee, Like,
Speaker 2: you know, God bless Starbucks because it's not great, but
Speaker 2: it's always there, like it is so bitter, it's so discovery.
Speaker 1: One says that Starbucks coffee just becomes addictive. But nobody
Speaker 1: really likes it.
Speaker 2: Nobody. I don't like it, but I'm glad it's there
Speaker 2: when I'm traveling because at least it's really consistent, you know,
Speaker 2: but it's not. But there's nuances in uh, like the
Speaker 2: medium roast world. There's there's a whole new generation of
Speaker 2: coffee roasters. They're not like taking it like super dark.
Speaker 2: I remember like when I was a kid. I grew
Speaker 2: up in restaurants. Right, there's a thing called like like
Speaker 2: a robusto Italian espresso roast, and it was dark black
Speaker 2: and it was shiny, so they would they would theoretically
Speaker 2: burn the beans and when you roast it obvious sudden
Speaker 2: there's oils. There's moisture inside the bean too, because they
Speaker 2: go from green to dark brown, the oils get extracted,
Speaker 2: the moisture of being gets extracted. And then what they
Speaker 2: would do is they would pipe that back on top
Speaker 2: of the bean to give it like a glaze, and
Speaker 2: then it would smell really good. But it was just
Speaker 2: so incredibly better as awful. And now, like the new
Speaker 2: thought process is not a dark roast, but it's more
Speaker 2: of a medium roast, so you get so it holds
Speaker 2: on to the fat inside the bean itself a natural oil.
Speaker 2: That way, you get like a really serious golden crima
Speaker 2: on top. And then and then you're not really I mean,
Speaker 2: it's still it's still coffee, so it's still kind up
Speaker 2: like a very robust flavor, but instead of it being bitter,
Speaker 2: it's it's actually sweet. It has more of a camel
Speaker 2: note to it. And then once you get into it.
Speaker 2: There could be a blueberry bomb, there could be a
Speaker 2: nutty note, there could be chocolate, there could be citrus,
Speaker 2: depending on exactly where they get the beans from, and
Speaker 2: and and so like to me, I'm just so into.
Speaker 1: It and I blow it away that I we just
Speaker 1: did ten minutes on coffee. You you are deep into this.
Speaker 1: You're a lover.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for for real. And listen, if if a
Speaker 2: push come to shove, if I had to make a
Speaker 2: hard distinction between like alcohol or coffee, alcohol is out,
Speaker 2: oh wow, right, coffe, yeah, I could. I could easily
Speaker 2: go without alcohol. But coffee to me is just kind
Speaker 2: of one of those things. It's just my little personal
Speaker 2: ceremony every morning, right, I get up first.
Speaker 1: The kid Lauren, my fiance, Lauren z Ema, so elz
Speaker 1: when she she goes. You don't understand. When I go
Speaker 1: to bed, I'm thinking about drinking coffee in the morning.
Speaker 1: I'm already excited about having my coffee.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and and and it's delicious, right, and there's also
Speaker 2: like really great health notes to it as well. I
Speaker 2: mean it definitely you know, the caffeine kind of gets
Speaker 2: you going, so you kind of filled that out at.
Speaker 1: I think it's a bad rep so that it's not
Speaker 1: bad for you.
Speaker 2: No, it's it's not bad for you. I guess it
Speaker 2: depends on it. Like listen, everything in excess is putting bad.
Speaker 2: Of course, I think it's probably bad for you, know,
Speaker 2: for anxiety, if you if you drink a lot of coffee.
Speaker 2: It's probably bad for blood pressure. If you drink a
Speaker 2: lot of coffee.
Speaker 1: You're not hydrated and you just keep drinking six coffees
Speaker 1: all day. Of course it's not going to be great
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, But there's lots of really great benefits of
Speaker 2: coffee as well. And it's just kind of one of
Speaker 2: those things like I just like the aroma, the taste
Speaker 2: of flavor, Like it's just kind of one of one
Speaker 2: of the things. And so my wife when when we
Speaker 2: first met, uh, she she drank port over coffee or
Speaker 2: just bathed like coffee from like a mister coffee machine whatever.
Speaker 2: So like it's got to hopper on top, you put
Speaker 2: the grinds in in coffee filter and then it's percolated,
Speaker 2: and like to me, I just can't drink that to
Speaker 2: save my life. If it's like if it's like pour
Speaker 2: over like diner coffee, I'll pass. I'd really have a
Speaker 2: couple of hot tea and and you can't tell you
Speaker 2: something my my my assistant books my hotel rooms based
Speaker 2: on that they have an espresso machine and a kitchener.
Speaker 1: Wow, you are bougie. You are bougie, super bougie.
Speaker 2: Dude, Like, like, are you going to like so you're
Speaker 2: going to this new city? Uh, here's here's this hotel
Speaker 2: I called them. I mean a couple of things. I
Speaker 2: need a cops out at eleven o'clock at night if
Speaker 2: I get there late, and then and then I need
Speaker 2: I need an espresso in the morning. If you don't
Speaker 2: have espresso, because it just slows the day down. I'm
Speaker 2: saying you like like you like if if I'm traveling,
Speaker 2: I don't casually travel. I travel for work.
Speaker 1: And I I actually because I'm a big tea drinker,
Speaker 1: I actually travel with my own tea. So I know
Speaker 1: on airplanes, airports, hotels, I wake up and I have
Speaker 1: my tea.
Speaker 2: What's your tea?
Speaker 1: Uh? And it's it's not great, it's cheap. I but
Speaker 1: I love the Zen it's toatso brand. I just I
Speaker 1: love the Zen totso green tea.
Speaker 2: That's nice. Listen, green tea is fabulous. Man. I had
Speaker 2: a cup of green tea the other day at at
Speaker 2: a restaurant and I was just sort of like an
Speaker 2: after dinner thing and he came by and I just
Speaker 2: felt like that was like a nice little cup of
Speaker 2: tea sounds great. And I had a little cup of
Speaker 2: green tea, and that's super beneficial for you.
Speaker 1: I'm a big de mint tea at night. I love
Speaker 1: love tea, and Honey, I'm like, I think I was
Speaker 1: maybe in my prior life was British. I'm guessing because
Speaker 1: I love a good pea coat, love a good scarf,
Speaker 1: love some tea, and I love soccer as well.
Speaker 2: Where's your ancestry from? Where are your people from?
Speaker 1: My people are from Austria, Okay, Texas, the United States.
Speaker 1: We could only I could only track them back to
Speaker 1: like when Texas was was formed. They came from Georgia.
Speaker 1: But my other side of the family, uh Ashkenazi Jews,
Speaker 1: came out of Austria.
Speaker 2: Yeah we are, well, there was because my last name
Speaker 2: was Florence, right, so there was this rumor family lore
Speaker 2: we were Italian and and so this say yeah Florenza Florence,
Speaker 2: like it just sense. So the family lore was that
Speaker 2: two brothers came from Tuscany and then came to the
Speaker 2: New World through Ellis Island. And then you know, if
Speaker 2: you've seen Godfather too, where Corleone we you know, couldn't
Speaker 2: speak English. So Corleoni became his last name because he
Speaker 2: was from Corleono, Sicily. And so the rumor was that
Speaker 2: that the two brothers didn't speak English, so Florence became
Speaker 2: their last name, and that became our American last name
Speaker 2: was Florence, right, interesting, well that and that's so the
Speaker 2: story went forever, and so we just felt like, Okay,
Speaker 2: you know, that's the reason I like pasta, That's the
Speaker 2: reason I love Italian food. And when I go to Italy,
Speaker 2: there's there's a deep soulful, spiritual connection with the food
Speaker 2: and the culture and the people. Like I just get
Speaker 2: there and just simulate really fast, like I'm here, I
Speaker 2: can live in Italy and two seconds flat, I could
Speaker 2: live in Rome, I could live in Florence. Like I
Speaker 2: just really love it speaking of Italy.
Speaker 1: And Europe because I love I just took a huge
Speaker 1: trip for her last birthday. We went through Italy, through Tuscany,
Speaker 1: started in Florence, which, by the way, one of my
Speaker 1: favorite cities in the world. I think it is massively underrated,
Speaker 1: even though it's a huge tourist spot. I still think
Speaker 1: it's underrated. I think people kind of sleep on how
Speaker 1: great Florence is. But then we went through the countryside
Speaker 1: and went wine tasting and had cooking classes and did
Speaker 1: the whole thing. And my question is the food there.
Speaker 1: And everybody says this, and it's very true. When you
Speaker 1: eat there, the pasta, the meats, everything, no matter what
Speaker 1: you do, you're not bloated, you don't feel sick, you
Speaker 1: don't get tired. It's just so much cleaner and better.
Speaker 1: And obviously the ingredients are very different from what we
Speaker 1: use in America. As a chef, when you're creating a
Speaker 1: kitchen and you're cooking for the masses, how do you
Speaker 1: create that in America? How are your restaurants as good
Speaker 1: as the ones in Florence or in Tuscany.
Speaker 2: Listen, I think that's a great question, like how do
Speaker 2: you stand out, how do you be great? How do
Speaker 2: you be great and consistent? And then carve your own
Speaker 2: lane in a way, because American food is kind of
Speaker 2: hard to describe. Yeah, like, if you had to say, Okay,
Speaker 2: what is American food, it's really kind of a big
Speaker 2: mish mash of a lot of.
Speaker 1: Things, right, yeah, because we are a massive melting pot
Speaker 1: from every culture around the world, and we're a pretty
Speaker 1: young country and culinary wise, we're very young.
Speaker 2: Very young, so it's really hard to put your finger
Speaker 2: on exactly what American food is. Now. I grew up
Speaker 2: in the South. I grew up in South Carolina. I
Speaker 2: went to culinary school in Charleston, and to me, Southern
Speaker 2: food I think is the clearless clearest identifier of what
Speaker 2: American food truly is, because it's food that you just
Speaker 2: can't get anywhere else on planet Earth. And then you
Speaker 2: start going to like the Northeast and like the Midwest,
Speaker 2: and you can quickly trace back cultural roots to the
Speaker 2: motherland where everything came from. Right, It's like German immigrants,
Speaker 2: Swedish immigrants, Polish immigrants, Italian immigrants, Jewish immigrants, right, African
Speaker 2: American influence and a lot of and so you kind
Speaker 2: of see that where things come from. But then you
Speaker 2: start taking a look at the melting pot of the
Speaker 2: food in the South, and like that's very, very distinctive
Speaker 2: and it happened here, right, So it's like the melting
Speaker 2: pot started creating like this new you know, kind of culture,
Speaker 2: what food, And I am so grateful to have that
Speaker 2: experience in my life, growing up in such a cultural, rich,
Speaker 2: diversified community where I learn a lot from everybody.
Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting you say that because so I grew
Speaker 1: up in Texas, and you know, we think we're the
Speaker 1: South as well, it's a different South you were from,
Speaker 1: the different Deep South. Texas. We are known for our barbecue.
Speaker 1: I'm in Austin, Texas, the cradle of barbecue, but people
Speaker 1: don't know that's not Southern. It's German. The Germans created barbecue.
Speaker 1: And if you drive around Texas there's a lot of
Speaker 1: German towns. New Bronze FLEs and Writes is Deli, which
Speaker 1: is a famous barbecue place. They're the ones that started
Speaker 1: smoking meat. So we you know, we've definitely borrowed it,
Speaker 1: but it it actually bizarrely came from Germany. It did
Speaker 1: for Germans, not Germany, but actually the Germans that were here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because the Germans definitely know how to manipulate pork,
Speaker 2: There's no doubt about it. They're very, very, very good
Speaker 2: at it right, very traditional, deep culinary heritage, especially if
Speaker 2: you go to like Saint Louis. It's really obvious in
Speaker 2: Saint Louis, right because you know Annheuser Bush of Saint Louis, Missouri. Like,
Speaker 2: there's a very deep German, rich German population in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2: And there's a barbecue place there. I think it's called
Speaker 2: Atoms if I'm thinking about correctly. But they season their
Speaker 2: pork with paprika and they serve it with apple sauce.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, Oh, very German.
Speaker 2: Very German there. It was like wow, trip, I'm like, wow,
Speaker 2: this is like the Saint Louis barbecue scene. And I'm
Speaker 2: a huge barbecue guy, Like.
Speaker 1: Oh my, there are the places in Austin. Do you
Speaker 1: have any go tos?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, for sure. So Aaron Franklin is a buddy, right,
Speaker 2: you got to give him a big.
Speaker 1: Shout you just well, by the way, Aaron Franklin doesn't
Speaker 1: need a shout out. There is a line right now,
Speaker 1: I promise you at Franklin's Barbecue. And if you ever
Speaker 1: come to Austin, it's worth it, guys, get in line,
Speaker 1: get you some Aaron Franklin's risk it.
Speaker 2: Yea yeah, with I doubt and I've got like a
Speaker 2: funny kind of an a whole celebrity story. At Austin, Texas,
Speaker 2: I was. I'm also I like motorcycles a lot, so
Speaker 2: I was in town for the Moto GP event at
Speaker 2: Circuit of America.
Speaker 1: Yeah, coda out there.
Speaker 2: This is going back about ten years. And I took
Speaker 2: two restaurant friends from San Francisco that had never been
Speaker 2: to Austin before. And I called Aaron and if you know,
Speaker 2: you know Franklin's barbecue, there's one thing they don't do.
Speaker 2: They don't do takeout. You gotta stand in line, and
Speaker 2: you gotta wait with everybody else, right. But I called
Speaker 2: him and I'm like, Aaron, bro, I've got these two
Speaker 2: guys because the race started at eleven, yeah, right then,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, we just would love to get some barbecue.
Speaker 2: If it's okay, can we just get a couple of
Speaker 2: bikes to go? And he goes, all right, So do
Speaker 2: my favorite pull up be really low key pull up
Speaker 2: walking on the side do or I know, I'll have
Speaker 2: a couple of bags ready for right, And so we
Speaker 2: pull in and of course it's like you know, a
Speaker 2: like a uh Tahoe you know black you know, uh yeah,
Speaker 2: I've got a driver. You know. You're like, we're just
Speaker 2: rolling it and uh and everyone's like they got there.
Speaker 2: They're they're basically camping in tents at like four o'clock
Speaker 2: in the morning to make sure because when the brisket's gone,
Speaker 2: the brisket's gone.
Speaker 1: I know, you got to get in line. You get
Speaker 1: your lawn chairs, you bring up your cooler of Shiner
Speaker 1: black beer, and you just sit there and drink some
Speaker 1: beers and wait for the barbecue to open.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And and so they will at some point in time,
Speaker 2: because I have waited in line for it in the past,
Speaker 2: they will start just do the calculation of how much
Speaker 2: brisket they've got. They'll go through the line and they
Speaker 2: go one, two, three, four, five, sir, you are not
Speaker 2: going to get any brisk yeah right now. And uh
Speaker 2: and they're like, well, that's just that's how the cookie crumbles.
Speaker 2: So anyway, so we roll in and then and then
Speaker 2: I walk into the back door and as soon as
Speaker 2: I get out of the car and people like, chev hey, shove,
Speaker 2: what's up.
Speaker 1: You're like, thanks for keeping it low key.
Speaker 2: Dude, I know, yeah, right, And then I walk in
Speaker 2: the back door and then I grabbed two two big bags,
Speaker 2: heavy bags of barbecue, and then I walk out, and
Speaker 2: then and then and and then the people realize I've
Speaker 2: broken the cardinal rule at Aaron Franklin and they start booing.
Speaker 2: They start booming us right and start throwing beer cans
Speaker 2: in our car. Oh ship, oh no, oh my god. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then uh, you know, then you know, like we
Speaker 2: went to go see Valentino ROSSI uh, you know, like
Speaker 2: I don't think he won that one, but you know,
Speaker 2: he's a big motorcycle guy. But we had a big
Speaker 2: spread when we got there and it was kind of
Speaker 2: fun but a huge fan. Also Tyson Cold with Ucci.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Ucci Ucci co. And they do the
Speaker 1: uh I believe is it loro? He and Franklin uh
Speaker 1: did a fusion. They did a barbecue Asian fusion deal.
Speaker 1: That is spectacular, spectacla.
Speaker 2: The foods.
Speaker 1: The food scene in Austin's fantastic, it really is. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm such a foodie that you just find something different
Speaker 1: driving down Congress or South Lamar whatever, and it's just
Speaker 1: you find a new place pasta at X. The sushi
Speaker 1: scene bizarrely is really good here. Sushi at X is wonderful.
Speaker 1: So it's been it's been fascinating for the last couple
Speaker 1: of years to dive into it. And by the way,
Speaker 1: I would throw La Barbecue on that list.
Speaker 2: Barbecue is great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm I'm a big Terry blackskuy.
Speaker 2: Terry Blacks is amazing. Oh my god, that's that's such great.
Speaker 1: Beef rib man amazing, it's you know, you mentioned so
Speaker 1: you mentioned a beef rib. So the crown jewel of
Speaker 1: Texas is brisket. You gotta cook a good brisket. And
Speaker 1: then you would say the pork rib baby back ribs,
Speaker 1: even though that's more of a Carolina thing and you
Speaker 1: start getting to Kansas City and Saint Louis and stuff
Speaker 1: for ribs, but ribs are still a big deal. The
Speaker 1: beef rib is something that really has come on in
Speaker 1: the last decade. That's a big deal.
Speaker 2: Now. Yeah, that's like that's like the big flintstone thing
Speaker 2: that knocks the car over. They're huge, so good. So
Speaker 2: we we have an Australian wagu beef rib on I
Speaker 2: have a steakhouse in San Francisco, right, and and that
Speaker 2: like when you get to that level of like flavor
Speaker 2: and blubber. You know, when it's like cooked really really well,
Speaker 2: it's just spectacular. It's just so good, Like I love it.
Speaker 1: What are your favorite things? What do you love to
Speaker 1: dive into? You know, I obviously when you're creating a restaurant,
Speaker 1: you would think, oh, I'm just going to do my
Speaker 1: favorite things. You don't really necessarily get to do that
Speaker 1: because you have a concept at a restaurant. If you
Speaker 1: could cook for me, for anybody, what's your go to?
Speaker 2: Well, I gotta tell you, I really love beef. I'm
Speaker 2: a big beef guy. I really do. I would say
Speaker 2: that's probably my favorite thing in the world. Because you know,
Speaker 2: we have a steakhouse and it's like this uh real
Speaker 2: deep passion mine. We just got voted best steakhouse in
Speaker 2: the San Francisco Bay Area by San Francisco magazine. Miller
Speaker 2: and Locks is the name of the restaurant.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you this. So because I'm a
Speaker 1: steak guy too, Yeah, what do you order? What's your cut?
Speaker 2: Well? I got to say I really like a ribbi.
Speaker 2: I think a rib is great and if you take
Speaker 2: it to the one step further, it's the tomahawk. Right,
Speaker 2: So it's fy with the extended bone right.
Speaker 1: Because I always want to know, like because I know,
Speaker 1: like you know, I'm not a file at guy, and
Speaker 1: I know chefs are Sometimes waiters look at you like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're ordering a file at. So I'm like, Okay, how
Speaker 1: can I also have a great meal but also look
Speaker 1: cool at the restaurant to the chef and to the waiter.
Speaker 1: Is it because I like New York's. I feel like
Speaker 1: New York's kind of a good medium, got some marbling
Speaker 1: in there, but it's also pretty lean.
Speaker 2: Good flavor. I always go if they've got dry age
Speaker 2: on there, go for that. If they got go for that.
Speaker 2: If they've got Kobe, go for that. I mean, I
Speaker 2: always try to get the most interesting thing for the table.
Speaker 2: And I also like to try to get a steak
Speaker 2: that other people can grab a slice of. So like
Speaker 2: at the restaurant, are like slam Dunk Dinner is our
Speaker 2: forty five day dry age tomahawk that comes from our
Speaker 2: Ranchi partner in South Dakota. Like, so it's blacking as
Speaker 2: prime and it's it's grass fed and then grain finished
Speaker 2: on barley, which is what we call California corn. So
Speaker 2: has a lower glycemic index, so it's actually healthier for
Speaker 2: the cows and then better for the environment because has
Speaker 2: less admissions. But the marbling, oh my god, market.
Speaker 1: Just chop that up and share it, because that is
Speaker 1: the other thing I want to ask is you see
Speaker 1: all the fancy words on the menu, dry, aged, wagu, kobe, uh,
Speaker 1: prime and all this stuff, and like it's a lot
Speaker 1: for someone who doesn't understand. Can you break some of
Speaker 1: those words and names and definitions down for us of
Speaker 1: what's worth it what's not?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, so prime is going to be the best
Speaker 2: quality could be looking for prime? Prime is great, And
Speaker 2: then there's then there's choice, right, and choice is okay.
Speaker 2: You know it's a it's like a different uh. The
Speaker 2: marbling is a little different, but you always want to
Speaker 2: look for the word prime. Now there's a difference between
Speaker 2: kobe and wagu, right and and wagu is definitely a
Speaker 2: word that has been used so often and almost to
Speaker 2: the point where they may not be telling the truth
Speaker 2: if it's real. Wag so so wagu is is a
Speaker 2: specific Uh breed of cattle from Uh from uh kobe
Speaker 2: so kobe traditionally right so so Wagu is a Japanese
Speaker 2: term and and it's a traditional uh beef ranching process
Speaker 2: uh in raising process from Japan. Right now around World
Speaker 2: War two that someone's had successfully uh smuggled u wagou
Speaker 2: semen from from Japan to Australia and now they're they're
Speaker 2: successfully breeding Australian wago, which is spectacular. And that's what
Speaker 2: we have on our restaurant because you kind of get
Speaker 2: this like it's a little more meaty and not quite
Speaker 2: so fatty, like it's a little more beefy, I think,
Speaker 2: which I think is really delicious. So it's a company
Speaker 2: called west Home that we use, ranching company out of
Speaker 2: Australia that that I just absolutely love. So so uh
Speaker 2: A one through five is a grading process for Japanese
Speaker 2: wagar kobe right and and so uh a A five
Speaker 2: is the absolute best is almost kind of what they
Speaker 2: call snow beef. Right, It's just it's almost pure fat.
Speaker 1: It melts in your mouth, melts in your mouth.
Speaker 2: You have really really really good right. And then when
Speaker 2: Australian instead of A one through five, it's f one
Speaker 2: through five, right, and so so it say absolute absolute
Speaker 2: best quality. Right, So we have a we have a
Speaker 2: fifty two ounce wagu tomahawk on the on the menu
Speaker 2: and we call it the e Rex, which is really great.
Speaker 2: And again it's kind of pricey, but you put it
Speaker 2: on the table and everybody gets a chance to split it.
Speaker 2: It's just fun. It's just delicious. So that's my thing.
Speaker 2: Answer your question. I really really love beef, and I
Speaker 2: kind of eat beef most days, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: Like like i'll i'll my go to kind of keto
Speaker 2: thing because I try to try to stay in shape.
Speaker 2: Is just a burger on a plate with a little
Speaker 2: bit of olive oil and a piece of Like there's
Speaker 2: my favorite cheese in the world is Mount tam Triple
Speaker 2: Cream bree from County, California. So and that that's basically
Speaker 2: the one of the construction elements over burger, which the
Speaker 2: Michelin Guide said was one of the five best burgers
Speaker 2: in the state of California. By the way, really it's banging, banging,
Speaker 2: and so to me, like that's kind of my dinner.
Speaker 2: Just a burger rare with a big slap and melt
Speaker 2: the cheese on top of that, salt pepper and Ali
Speaker 2: Wiel and I just kind of smashed that in the line,
Speaker 2: like right at five o'clock four service starts, and I
Speaker 2: think and for some crazy reason it really works for me, like, well,
Speaker 2: it fills you up, and it's also it doesn't spoke
Speaker 2: your blood sugar, and you know, I don't feel like
Speaker 2: but to kind of go back where you're talking earlier
Speaker 2: as far as like like how healthy Italian food is
Speaker 2: because it's so clean, it's and and the pasta specifically,
Speaker 2: it's so it's so much better for you. It's because
Speaker 2: it's not genetically modified, Like the EU has very strict
Speaker 2: rules about genetically modified ingredients in anything where in in America,
Speaker 2: like Canadian hard red wheat is is what goes in
Speaker 2: most bread and and goes the most pasta here in America,
Speaker 2: and and it is very very manipulated to have a
Speaker 2: super high level of gluten and and so like people
Speaker 2: will will that question will have more of an allergic
Speaker 2: reaction because it's it's the it's the wheat, or it's
Speaker 2: the peanuts. It's not the kid, right. So I think
Speaker 2: that's probably one of the big things that's a difference
Speaker 2: between Italian food and American Italian food. So when when
Speaker 2: we do pasta, we only use Italian wheat, we have
Speaker 2: Italian wheat imported, and that's the only thing that we
Speaker 2: use because of the glycinemc condex of spike. Because you
Speaker 2: want to feel good once you eat like really really
Speaker 2: good food, you want to feel good, right, So that's
Speaker 2: that's one thing that I think kind of makes that
Speaker 2: really different. So, and it's just so clean, like it's
Speaker 2: like super really good fats, right, it's like animal fats,
Speaker 2: olive oil, really great vegetables, you know, wood fired, not
Speaker 2: fried's grilled or whatever, and so you get like really
Speaker 2: just really delicious flavor. Profile.
Speaker 1: Who are you a fan of? You know when you
Speaker 1: when you talk to other athletes, they follow other athletes,
Speaker 1: you know, they you know, the old line game recognizes game.
Speaker 1: Whose restaurants do you like to go to? Who do
Speaker 1: you love?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, this restaurant called Bastia and Los Angeles in
Speaker 2: downtown LA which I think is really great. I'm blank
Speaker 2: on the chef's name, but he's got that place, and
Speaker 2: he's got a place called Safie's and he's just doing
Speaker 2: such real Like it's more it's like it's like it's
Speaker 2: like Jewish Italian but it's like but it's so incredibly good,
Speaker 2: really Mediterranean fabulous out of this food. And then I
Speaker 2: kind of, you know, because I'm fifty two, right, so
Speaker 2: I grew up in the eighties and my flavor of
Speaker 2: restaurants happened to be a little fancier than most. Right.
Speaker 2: I always think I'm like first of the new and
Speaker 2: last of the old. Right, Yeah, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm a last of the old guys, and I'm the
Speaker 2: first of the new guys. And so I'm old enough
Speaker 2: to know what like really good, high quality, beautiful services
Speaker 2: like in fancy restaurants in Paris and New York and London,
Speaker 2: and and so there's I think there's an oversimplification and
Speaker 2: over casualization of a lot of restaurants. Not that this
Speaker 2: food is not great and it's not fun, it just
Speaker 2: feels like they're not trying really hard, right, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just kind of it doesn't feel it doesn't feel
Speaker 2: like you're being taken care of. It feels sometimes you
Speaker 2: can feel like pretty but a little sloppy. Right. And
Speaker 2: so we really at Miller Unlocks our restaurant, we really
Speaker 2: want to bring bring glamour back and and you know,
Speaker 2: really kind of focus on like the old school stuff,
Speaker 2: right where not it's just a tablecloth covered table, but
Speaker 2: the table's padded with a tablecloth on top of it,
Speaker 2: so you touch it feel soft, right, And then really, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's little things like like it makes all the difference
Speaker 2: in the world. You know, fresh flowers in the table,
Speaker 2: like really beautiful stemware. You know, spectacular service, just unbelievable service.
Speaker 2: And then but then you you kind of make it
Speaker 2: feel comfortable because we're just going steak, Like I've got
Speaker 2: fried chicken on the menu. You know, it's like because
Speaker 2: I'm from the South and and it really kind of
Speaker 2: fits my flavor profile. But people are very very well
Speaker 2: taken care of. We have a table side caesar salad
Speaker 2: that Forbes magazine said was the best season salad in America.
Speaker 2: Like like, we're and so and it's just a caesar,
Speaker 2: but it's it's like it's a deconstructed process that gets
Speaker 2: made right in front of you, and the flavor profile
Speaker 2: is just amazing.
Speaker 1: There was a what was that steakhouse in l It's
Speaker 1: still there. Actually, the one word, Oh god, that's that's
Speaker 1: going to drive me crazy. Anyway, they did it. They
Speaker 1: did a table side caesar back in the day. It
Speaker 1: was so good. It was like a game changer. It
Speaker 1: was actually a little spicy, a little you know, the
Speaker 1: horse radish in there. The whole it was anchovies. All
Speaker 1: of it was just spectacular.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like like there's there's a level of glamour
Speaker 2: that that I have a clear recollection of that I
Speaker 2: get to add to our our profile with our restaurants
Speaker 2: that a lot of people, like younger chefs have no
Speaker 2: understanding of that just because they weren't around so so
Speaker 2: that they're all kind of like doing the same thing
Speaker 2: and chasing each other on Instagram and they kind of
Speaker 2: like copying each other's food style. And for me, I
Speaker 2: don't do any of that, Like, I don't I never
Speaker 2: chase styles. I never copy anybody. What we do is
Speaker 2: our thing, you know. And uh, and we we keep
Speaker 2: it simple, We keep it thematic at Steak right, so
Speaker 2: people walk on the door of the but then it's
Speaker 2: best in category, best in class, like the reviews are
Speaker 2: in and and so we're we're super excited. Love love
Speaker 2: love my restaurant team, Love love basketball, love working with
Speaker 2: the Warriors. It's it's such an amazing opportunity because I
Speaker 2: am a big basketball fan, but just kind of be
Speaker 2: a part of this one point four billion dollar arena,
Speaker 2: which is like a new part of the city in
Speaker 2: San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and arguably you know, the best dynasty in the
Speaker 1: last ten years. I mean you've hit it a a
Speaker 1: great time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I've seen it all man, you know, and
Speaker 2: all the basketball players come in, you know, Draymond comes in,
Speaker 2: stuff comes in, like Clay comes in, all these and
Speaker 2: then so our restaurant's their hangout spot after after the game.
Speaker 2: Clay had his birthday party there last year, and like
Speaker 2: and so it just feels like we're just so you
Speaker 2: like SYNCD up with a heartbeat of the city of
Speaker 2: San Francisco with this restaurant. I mean like post game,
Speaker 2: like we even like tonight, Yeah, Drake's buying a third
Speaker 2: these these buying the restaurant out with a thirty top scene.
Speaker 1: My friend, dude, that that's that That is a baller move.
Speaker 1: That is It's what I would expect from Drake. I
Speaker 1: mean just a ball or move.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, and even last year year doing not last
Speaker 2: year before last when went to the finals, like the
Speaker 2: restaurant after like during the game, before the game, after
Speaker 2: the game, like like you just start looking around, like
Speaker 2: the net worth of everybody in the room is like
Speaker 2: our tech billionaires. Those are our celebrities in San Francisco,
Speaker 2: the billionaires and uh and then like you look at these,
Speaker 2: like the VC folks and the hip hop community and
Speaker 2: the NBA team. But I like, look at these, it's
Speaker 2: got to be cool for you. That's got to be
Speaker 2: even for you who's done it all and seen it all.
Speaker 2: It's got to be cool to look around your dining
Speaker 2: room and like, damn it, dude, I'm I'm killing it
Speaker 2: right now, yelling it, you know, and and but but
Speaker 2: then but then also delivering too right. I mean, like
Speaker 2: it's like it's one thing to to get famous, it's
Speaker 2: really hard to stay there. This is my twenty seventh
Speaker 2: year on television of Food Network. I just finished my
Speaker 2: seventeenth cookbook. You have to stay relevant by providing the
Speaker 2: best quality food and the best quality service. And you
Speaker 2: you're only as good as your last play to food.
Speaker 1: You just said something very brilliant, and it is so true.
Speaker 1: It's it's somewhat easy to become famous, very very difficult
Speaker 1: to stay famous for very difficult. Whether it's sports, rock
Speaker 1: and roll, the off more slump, restaurants, all of it.
Speaker 1: It's you name it. It is a difficult thing to do,
Speaker 1: and food is it a really I want to get
Speaker 1: to some dating questions here in a second two about food.
Speaker 1: But food has become and you mentioned your young chefs
Speaker 1: if they get caught up in this. You know, we've
Speaker 1: all heard of Noma now we all watched the show
Speaker 1: Chef and Food Network has really exploded, and so I
Speaker 1: think that's a great thing, but it's also probably a
Speaker 1: dangerous thing as well. There's probably a yan and a
Speaker 1: yang to this.
Speaker 2: Well. I mean, I mean, like the the idea that
Speaker 2: anybody you know there was. There's about twenty five people
Speaker 2: on planet Earth that have shared my life experience, right,
Speaker 2: I like being on Food Network for as long as
Speaker 2: I have about twenty five people, and the only person's
Speaker 2: been on the network longer than me is Bobby. And
Speaker 2: so the Great Food Truck Race Season sixteen just wrapped
Speaker 2: and it was the number one show on the network
Speaker 2: here in the summer. We always we always are, if
Speaker 2: not number one, a real close second, but this year
Speaker 2: we smashed out of the park because now we're on
Speaker 2: with Warner Brothers, which means we're on HBO and always
Speaker 2: other things so they've crossed Polly of the show and
Speaker 2: a couple of different outlets where more people can find it,
Speaker 2: and we just crushed it. I was so excited about
Speaker 2: the show and then and then you know, and every
Speaker 2: season we have, you know, just just just like on
Speaker 2: The Bachelor, man this, you know, it's like you get
Speaker 2: a whole group of people, they get that little nibble
Speaker 2: of fame because they're on television, and then they really
Speaker 2: think the second they walk out of that, it's like,
Speaker 2: where's my limo, where's my gino, where's sunglasses, where's my agent,
Speaker 2: where's my publicist, where's my all this stuff? And then
Speaker 2: you'll have it for five minutes walking out of there,
Speaker 2: but then it'll go away unless there's some there there
Speaker 2: with you as a person. And then the only thing
Speaker 2: that I can really attribute to my longevity is that
Speaker 2: I like to help people and I like to teach
Speaker 2: people how to cook. And I think that if you're
Speaker 2: going to do something to be famous, you need to
Speaker 2: do something that's going to help somebody, and that's how
Speaker 2: you get there and you stay there. So like if
Speaker 2: you if you happen to find your way and to
Speaker 2: success with like The Bachelor or you know, one of
Speaker 2: the guest spots on Food Network or whatever. You walking
Speaker 2: out of there, you better have a really, really good
Speaker 2: solid plan on how you want to contribute to society
Speaker 2: and not just sort of be famous to be famous,
Speaker 2: but but to really you know, to but to to
Speaker 2: do do a great job and feel like people can
Speaker 2: people can utilize your talent right, people can realize it.
Speaker 2: I just finished my seventeenth cookbook. Like all of our
Speaker 2: content is free on food Network and and and people
Speaker 2: uh for free and generations of people almost like three
Speaker 2: generations now of Food Network fans going back to like
Speaker 2: the early nineties, you know, like they'll download my content,
Speaker 2: they'll use it. We put so much work into testing
Speaker 2: all of our recipes down to the grain of salt,
Speaker 2: and and so to me, that is my currency, that
Speaker 2: that's our trust level that if you're going to download
Speaker 2: our recipes, if you're going to use them, they're going
Speaker 2: to work right. And then all of a sudden, it's
Speaker 2: like if I'm make you look good because you, you know,
Speaker 2: took a chance and cooked one of our recipes, then
Speaker 2: we've got this long term relationship. And people walk up
Speaker 2: from the airport like, oh my god, I download that thing,
Speaker 2: and that's the secret for long term success. That's the secret.
Speaker 2: How not how can you consume my goods? How can
Speaker 2: I help you? That's the secret. And if you can
Speaker 2: figure that one out, then you'll get famous and you'll
Speaker 2: stay there.
Speaker 1: With Tyler Florence, there's a lot of there there. As
Speaker 1: we just said, Okay, you're on a date. You gotta
Speaker 1: maybe you have a date coming over, or you're going
Speaker 1: to a restaurant. What should you order? What should you avoid?
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's really important to like know who
Speaker 2: you're going out with. Right, Let's let's just say it's
Speaker 2: like an early day. Let's say it's early in the
Speaker 2: relationship exact. Yeah, well, yeah, we're like second third date,
Speaker 2: second third date. It's really good to know if the
Speaker 2: person you're going out with hates oysters. It's really good
Speaker 2: to know if someone that you're going out with likes
Speaker 2: their steak medium, rare. It's really good to know that
Speaker 2: if you're going out with somebody, they they they really
Speaker 2: like French white wine and not California white wine. Right,
Speaker 2: And so I think when you kind of roll in
Speaker 2: and and also and women love this, I think the
Speaker 2: table loves it too. Especially with me, because people just
Speaker 2: like hand me, hand me the the menu, Like I
Speaker 2: don't think there's anything wrong with just like ordering for
Speaker 2: the table.
Speaker 1: I love that. I love someone that takes control. It
Speaker 1: just says, you walk into a sushi restaurant like we
Speaker 1: got it. We're just gonna throw a stub like I
Speaker 1: love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's what I normally do too, So like
Speaker 2: I just kind of like, and I don't mean to
Speaker 2: muscle in, but like people, especially because I'm the chef
Speaker 2: who were like, you got it right, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I always announced it. I'm gonna order for the tables
Speaker 2: that okay with you guys are like, yeah, I wed
Speaker 2: love it. Okay, we'll take two of these, we'll take
Speaker 2: three of those. We'll take one of those medium rare boom.
Speaker 2: Let's get a sou fle in the oven and then
Speaker 2: you kind of sit down and you relax. So I
Speaker 2: think you know, knowing who your uh, your date is
Speaker 2: on a personal level, so you're not gonna make any
Speaker 2: any like faux pause things that they're not going to
Speaker 2: find sort of yummy, right like if you order a
Speaker 2: dozen oysters and they don't eat oysters right after they're
Speaker 2: allergic or they're allergic, or they're there, or they there
Speaker 2: they have, you know, a gluten tolerance or whatever. So anyway,
Speaker 2: I think it's like, you know, take a little.
Speaker 1: Know your audience. I I love oysters, so does LZ.
Speaker 1: Are they actually an aphrodisiac as we've heard for many,
Speaker 1: many years or is that complete and utter bullshit?
Speaker 2: I don't know, man, I wish I had a real
Speaker 2: soft answer for you. I know they're they're very iron rich.
Speaker 2: I know it's good for your blood. I don't know,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I know, I definitely. I mean, I
Speaker 2: eat a lot of oysters. I don't feel particularly amorous.
Speaker 1: I don't remember ever feeling any different either after although
Speaker 1: I do love them.
Speaker 2: I love them. I love oysters.
Speaker 1: I think a great bottle of wine definitely an afridisiac
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 2: Oh that's that's so the social lubricant. I love one.
Speaker 1: Okay, you're you're cooking at home, and you know, I
Speaker 1: think spaghetti. I think pasta definitely a difficult thing to eat.
Speaker 1: And I always think of that, what's hard to eat?
Speaker 1: What are you going to look really horrible.
Speaker 2: Eating it's hard to eat? What do you what do
Speaker 2: you mean? Well?
Speaker 1: I think it's a hard thing to look good in front.
Speaker 2: Of a date.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's easy to eat, but it's I'm just saying, like,
Speaker 1: you don't particularly look sexy eating certain foods. I also
Speaker 1: know that, you know, do you do you stay away
Speaker 1: from like heavy garlics, things onions, things that are gonna
Speaker 1: make your breast stink? You know?
Speaker 2: So, so pasta to me depends on the pasta and
Speaker 2: the restaurant, right, because, like I'm a foodie obviously, and
Speaker 2: like hardcore foodie. Right, So if I'm going to go
Speaker 2: to restaurants specifically, it's because they make great pasta, like
Speaker 2: Evan Funky and Los Angeles, like his his new restaurant
Speaker 2: Mother Wolf in downtown O MG, run don't walk. Really.
Speaker 2: Pasta is fabulous, right.
Speaker 1: A downtown scene in LA. It's really interesting how much
Speaker 1: that's There's several michelinerrated restaurants down there. It is an
Speaker 1: absolute pain in the asked to get to downtown Los
Speaker 1: Angeles from anywhere in Los Angeles because nobody lives down there.
Speaker 1: But man, it's worth it if you can get down there.
Speaker 2: It's popping. It's it's so much fun. And then so
Speaker 2: I think the like the if it's really really great.
Speaker 2: It kind of goes from like this thing, like there's
Speaker 2: a difference between a business dinner, right with like agents
Speaker 2: and directors. You kind of you want things that are
Speaker 2: kind of coming small. You don't want to like talk
Speaker 2: with your mouth full. You don't want to have anything
Speaker 2: that's gonna get red sauce on your shirt. You really
Speaker 2: don't want to take any of those chances because you
Speaker 2: want to walk out of that that launch of that
Speaker 2: dinner and close that deal. Right. I think that's a
Speaker 2: very different circumstances then going out with somebody who the
Speaker 2: two of you are crushing over. This chef it is
Speaker 2: to come from sam Razano and they're just delicious. And
Speaker 2: if you get a little sauce on your cheek, that's
Speaker 2: the cutest thing in the world. To take a napkin
Speaker 2: and kind of wipe it off or whatever. You can
Speaker 2: have that that that what's the what's the Disney cartoon
Speaker 2: with the two dogs eth apasa together at the same time.
Speaker 1: Oh lady in the tramp tramp you can like maybe
Speaker 1: this piece of spaghetti, right exactly.
Speaker 2: I think it could be kind of funny. So I
Speaker 2: don't know. I think there's like if if if it's
Speaker 2: such a stressful situation where I need to look good
Speaker 2: and I don't want to look like a pig. I
Speaker 2: always think it's really important to also to not clean
Speaker 2: your plate, right, I interested to leave a couple of
Speaker 2: bytes on your plate because I just think it just
Speaker 2: kind of it just looks a little piggish if you
Speaker 2: just eat everything, you know what I mean. So it's
Speaker 2: like it's just it's sort of a it's sort of
Speaker 2: a polite thing, right like you kind of you you have.
Speaker 2: I think it says you have discipline, self discipline. You're
Speaker 2: not gonna like, oh, you're good. I think that that's
Speaker 2: a really good strategic business dinner move.
Speaker 1: And it leaves her like a bite left if she
Speaker 1: would like a bite.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 1: And I'm a big share I you know what, I
Speaker 1: judge people. If you don't share your food, if you're
Speaker 1: not about family style, you're you're you're dead. To me,
Speaker 1: it just it says everything I need to know about you.
Speaker 1: People that are like no, it's like I'm ordering my own.
Speaker 1: It's like no, man, it's like I like everybody ordering
Speaker 1: different stuff and we pass it around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean because like if not, like what, what's
Speaker 2: the there's joy in sharing this joint experience of going
Speaker 2: to a great restaurant and just having so much fun
Speaker 2: and having that moment where you all take the forty
Speaker 2: five day dry age wagu and you dip it in
Speaker 2: the burnet sauce. At the same time it both it
Speaker 2: pops your mouth and you all go, oh, my god,
Speaker 2: or the bone arrow or the black truffle or the
Speaker 2: cacho pepe or like those. To me, like we have
Speaker 2: those shared experience. Everybody loves it. I think it's great,
Speaker 2: and it's also it could be like a weird dating
Speaker 2: red flag too if somebody doesn't want you to eat
Speaker 2: to play the food.
Speaker 1: And by the way, you just mentioned my other thing
Speaker 1: off the top of the show, and I said, there's
Speaker 1: two things that I'm embarrassed about that I can't stand.
Speaker 1: One is coffee. The real one that bothers me that
Speaker 1: I cannot eat to save my life is truffles. And
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I hate saying that to chefs.
Speaker 1: I you know, I've been in Paris, I've been all
Speaker 1: around France during truffle season.
Speaker 2: This is the most dramatic Podcas.
Speaker 1: I feel like such an a hole Tyler. I mean
Speaker 1: they'll come out with the silk napkin and they'll be
Speaker 1: unveiling this truffle that they just dug up this morning
Speaker 1: in the forest. And I look at him and I say,
Speaker 1: I respect you. I respect that truffle. I understand how
Speaker 1: incredible this white truffle is. You're about to shave, Please don't,
Speaker 1: or I will gag.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that will be the new Variety headline
Speaker 2: that you do not like trusting. Now.
Speaker 1: I feel like such a dick. I feel like I
Speaker 1: might as well be yelling at a great restaurant. Hey,
Speaker 1: bring me some ice and some ketchup. I feel like
Speaker 1: that American, you know. I feel like such a jerk
Speaker 1: that I don't love truffles. But man, the smell is
Speaker 1: so pungent, the taste, I just there is a gagg reflex.
Speaker 1: I just can't do it.
Speaker 2: It's weird. I've got a really good friend of mine,
Speaker 2: Don Miggs. If he's listening, shout out. He's a producer,
Speaker 2: music producer, and he lives in Nashville and Los Angeleson,
Speaker 2: and he's just one of my best friends. And we
Speaker 2: always goof because he hates truffles and he hates Yeah.
Speaker 2: Other than that, he's actually a really big foodie and
Speaker 2: he loves restaurants and he loves chefs. Ye there's two things, right, listen,
Speaker 2: you know there's more for me. I'm totally and.
Speaker 1: I know people look the cilantro thing I get because
Speaker 1: I'm fine with cilantro, but I know some people have
Speaker 1: this weird DNA where it tastes like soap to you
Speaker 1: and it's just horrible. So there are Look, there's just
Speaker 1: certain things. But that is the one I'm most embarrassed
Speaker 1: about because I've been to some of the best restaurants
Speaker 1: in the world and I just feel like an a hole.
Speaker 2: It's okay, it's okay, Thank you. I needed.
Speaker 1: That's the reassurance I needed from you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a pass on that.
Speaker 2: No big deal. And it's hard to live in Austin,
Speaker 2: Texas and I like cilantro.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, It's in everything, every taco, every salsa, every
Speaker 1: but I needed, you know, the great master chef Tyler
Speaker 1: Florence to tell me I'm actually okay.
Speaker 2: I need that you're telling.
Speaker 1: You with that debt, you know, one of the best things.
Speaker 1: I don't know if Wells has talked about this, he
Speaker 1: didn't get to travel as much, but you know, hosting
Speaker 1: the Bachelor and Bacherette for twenty years, I traveled the
Speaker 1: world and I would have, you know, a week in Copenhagen,
Speaker 1: a week in Paris, a week in Australia, a week
Speaker 1: in you know, South Africa. And so I got to
Speaker 1: go to the greatest restaurants in the cuisine and the
Speaker 1: Vietnam and going into some of these villages and Thailand
Speaker 1: and eating the street food. And you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: Anthony Bourdain, but I got to enjoy his life. I mean,
Speaker 1: I really got to kind of live that and try
Speaker 1: all these different cuisines around the world, and that I
Speaker 1: am so grateful. It's made me such a better connoisseur
Speaker 1: of food and a lover of culture and cuisine around
Speaker 1: the world. That was one of the best parts, you know,
Speaker 1: going to Peru. Lima, it's one of the hot spots
Speaker 1: of food right now. It's it's incredible.
Speaker 2: I got a speech and Lima is amazing, and I'm
Speaker 2: I'm super super grateful for that too, right because a
Speaker 2: lot of the big travel opportunities I've had to go
Speaker 2: really explore and you know, get a first person recount
Speaker 2: of like what that, yeah is you know, to not
Speaker 2: have a habit at a restaurant in New York, actually
Speaker 2: go to the location have it is from Food Network,
Speaker 2: is from travel right, And I'm just super grateful, you know,
Speaker 2: we get a chance to I know, most major cities
Speaker 2: in America intimately, so I've got favorite restaurants in every
Speaker 2: every city and so it's all from you know, just
Speaker 2: working on television.
Speaker 1: It's a blessing for sure.
Speaker 2: Blessing that's one of the greatest things in the world.
Speaker 1: Speaking of television, speaking of The Bachelor, this is something
Speaker 1: that there's a rumor and I don't even know if
Speaker 1: this is true, believe it or not being the host
Speaker 1: and producer on the show for twenty years, yeah, did
Speaker 1: we come after you to be the Bachelor?
Speaker 2: Yeah, at two thousand, you know, it's it's a long
Speaker 2: time ago. And I actually brought this up on our
Speaker 2: podcast because of Wells and we talked about that, and
Speaker 2: it just hit me like a ton of bricks because
Speaker 2: having thought about it for I'm like, dude, this is
Speaker 2: going to be crazy. But I turned The Bachelor down
Speaker 2: and it must have been in like two thousand and three,
Speaker 2: so I was the Sexiest Chef Alive in People magazine
Speaker 2: back in two thousand. I remember that, and it was
Speaker 2: either two thousand and two, two thousand and three, but
Speaker 2: it was something that it was a real long time ago.
Speaker 2: So I was with William Morris and the offer came
Speaker 2: through and we took a meeting, and then I really
Speaker 2: thought about it because I was going through a divorce
Speaker 2: at the time and I had a young son who's
Speaker 2: now twenty seven years old. Yeah, I'm with you, and
Speaker 2: I didn't want to have that that image or that
Speaker 2: energy out there that I was making up with girls
Speaker 2: in the hots up. Not that there's anything wrong with that,
Speaker 2: but it was just it was just it wasn't It
Speaker 2: wasn't my message at that time. And listen, I passed
Speaker 2: on a bunch of shows. I passed on The Apprentice.
Speaker 2: I passed on Dancing with the Stars. The Apprentice came
Speaker 2: out to me hard.
Speaker 1: I bet you would have been great, actually, and I've
Speaker 1: done the same. I got, you know, I got approached
Speaker 1: by I've been approached by Dancing and a million of these.
Speaker 1: But I had heard about this and I wasn't sure
Speaker 1: if it was true, and that's probably why I didn't
Speaker 1: know is it would have been two thousand. You we
Speaker 1: premiered in two thousand and two, so it probably would
Speaker 1: have been the end of two thousand and two, two
Speaker 1: thousand and three. That would have been one of our
Speaker 1: maybe number two, three or four bachelors. So you would
Speaker 1: have been you know, Bob Guinea season, Andrew Firestone season.
Speaker 1: You would have been right in there and that maybe
Speaker 1: you know, maybe even number two. But that would have
Speaker 1: been phenomenal. And I remember now maybe them talking about
Speaker 1: getting a celebrity chef, But I wasn't that involved back
Speaker 1: in the day when I first started. I was just
Speaker 1: the host. I really, you know, they didn't come to
Speaker 1: me for producing stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I was. I was. I had a you know,
Speaker 2: a very serious girlfriend the time who lived together in
Speaker 2: New York. It was just like, how am I going
Speaker 2: to How am I going to do this good call?
Speaker 1: I think I think you chose wisely.
Speaker 2: There's just no yeah, there's no way. There's just no way.
Speaker 2: And listen, a lot of those guys, you know, a
Speaker 2: lot of those people, you know, it's hard to and
Speaker 2: this is this is the churn of of reality television.
Speaker 2: Like you're going to get hyper famous, You're gonna be
Speaker 2: on the cover of every magazine and every grocery store
Speaker 2: around the world. And then the next season they're going
Speaker 2: to have somebody else. Ye. Then and then you start
Speaker 2: to become this like distant memory, and so I think
Speaker 2: it's I don't know. It was just kind of like
Speaker 2: one of those decisions. I'm like, do I want to
Speaker 2: do this? I don't know, Like I'm a chef, like
Speaker 2: like a shut up and cook.
Speaker 1: Stay in your lane, man, stay in lane.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna stay in my lane, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: let everybody else find love.
Speaker 1: You know, this is the new book, Tyler Florence. Stay
Speaker 1: out of the hot tub, Stay in the kitchen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly. I have the hot tub and into
Speaker 2: the kitchen. I think it's a cover.
Speaker 1: Tyler Man, thank you so much for taking the time
Speaker 1: and talking. I could talk food, cooking, all of this
Speaker 1: for forever, and hopefully we will do this again because
Speaker 1: I will have a thousand more questions and things to
Speaker 1: talk about. I appreciate it. The only thing I'm sorry
Speaker 1: about is I'm sorry you have to host a show
Speaker 1: with Wells Adams. I know that is heavy lifting.
Speaker 2: He's he is so good. He is the best like
Speaker 2: all of it. And he's got a really interesting sort
Speaker 2: of background with like his his radio uh work Sphil.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's a great uh in you know, the
Speaker 2: the the all the Powers would be at iHeartRadio said
Speaker 2: you two should work together, and then we justiked from
Speaker 2: the first episode, we just clicked and and so like
Speaker 2: and he's uh and so I met him. He was
Speaker 2: on Worst Cooks in America on Food Network and and
Speaker 2: he won, yeah, against Johnny Bananas from MTV and he
Speaker 2: was on my team and Wells was on with Am
Speaker 2: Morell and and the two of them won. So and
Speaker 2: and so we've been friends ever since. He's a big
Speaker 2: hardcore foodie and he just loves us. We're pals and
Speaker 2: we're good counterbalance with each other too.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So the podcast, by the way, we're talking about
Speaker 1: with Tyler Florence and Wells Adams. Two dudes in the
Speaker 1: kitchen talking all things cooking, culinary food, wine, whiskey, you
Speaker 1: name it. They get into it. It's an awesome podcast.
Speaker 1: And Yeah, to know Wells Adams is to love him.
Speaker 1: He has a dear friend and a really good guy.
Speaker 2: He's the best.
Speaker 1: You're the best man. I appreciate it. Tyler Florence, thanks
Speaker 1: for joining me on the most dramatic podcast ever ever.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the Most
Speaker 1: Dramatic Pod Ever, and make sure to write us a
Speaker 1: review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you
Speaker 1: next time.